Redout 2 Potato Mode / Unreal Engine 4 Performance Improvement

My configuration for super low graphics settings for Redout 2 / any Unreal Engine 4 (and maybe UE5) game.

What performance to expect

With this game work in 50-60 fps with no stutters / lags on Ryzen 3200U (Vega 3, it is sad), while utilising up to 2GB of VRAM and around 3GB of RAM.
Game is very well optimised but I am afraid that 1GB of VRAM may not be enough.

Ryzen 3 3200u with Vega 3 and 2133mhz RAM, FHD with 33% rendering (360p), Integer Scaling
Ryzen 3 3200u with Vega 3 and 3133mhz RAM, FHD with 100% rendering
Vanilla minimum settings:
- Floating framerate
- Downs up to 20 fps
- High latency
- Stutters
Advanced Graphic Destruction by Akara:
- Great stability
- Double the FPS
- Fast loading times
- Everything not essential was removed, so you can focus on gameplay

1. In-game settings

Set graphics preset to lowest possible, turn off motion blur, lense flares and such.
Turn off Intel XESS or any AI Upscalers.
Use steam launch options -dx11 in case of poor DirectX 12 stability, but DX12 works good in this game.

2. Find config files

Default storage for Redout 2 settings is "C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\Local\Redout2\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor"
Other Unreal Engine 4 games usually use the same path, just find the right folder in AppData\Local\
You can edit them with just notepad.

Back-up "GameUserSettings.ini" and "Engine.ini", or if you want to restore default settings you can delete them, so game will create default ones.

3. Edit "GameUserSettings.ini"

Open "GameUserSettings.ini" and make first group of settings look like these:

[ScalabilityGroups]
sg.ResolutionQuality=50.000000
sg.ViewDistanceQuality=0
sg.AntiAliasingQuality=0
sg.ShadowQuality=0
sg.PostProcessQuality=0
sg.TextureQuality=0
sg.EffectsQuality=0
sg.FoliageQuality=0
sg.ShadingQuality=0

With adequate GPU you can not touch next setting at all, there is working options for scaling down to 50% in-game.

Find

ScreenPercentage

and set it to 33.333333.
This way interface will render in full resolution and only 3D graphics will be affected. I set 33.33%, so on 1920x1080 resolution image will look like 640x360, this affects performance a lot, but if you want more detailed image you can set it to 40 or 50.

4. Edit "Engine.ini"

Open "Engine.ini" and add following code:

[Core.Log]
LogPluginManager=all off
LogOnlineIdentity=all off
LogOnlineSession=all off
LogMemory=all off
LogPakFile=all off
LogTemp=all off
LogLinker=all off
LogOnline=all off
LogOnlineGame=all off
LogAnalytics=all off
LogConfig=all off
LogInteractiveProcess=all off
LogInput=all off
LogOnlineEntitlement=all off
LogOnlineEvents=all off
LogOnlineFriend=all off
LogOnlinePresence=all off
LogOnlineTitleFile=all off
LogOnlineUser=all off
Global=off

[SystemSettings]
r.FinishCurrentFrame=0 ;Core engine settings
r.OneFrameThreadLag=0 ;This can be set to 1, but it will increase latency.
r.CreateShadersOnLoad=1
r.GPUCrashDebugging=0
r.CompileShadersForDevelopment=0
r.Shaders.Optimize=1
r.Shaders.FastMath=1
r.EarlyZPass=0
PerfIndexValues_ResolutionQuality=0
r.VirtualTexture=1
r.VirtualTextureReducedMemory=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdates=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesDuringGamethreadUpdates=1
r.SupportDepthOnlyIndexBuffers=1
r.SupportReversedIndexBuffers=1

r.RenderTargetPoolMin=128 ;Streaming pool sizes, this settings will work for R2, but they are too specific for each game and hardware.
r.Streaming.PoolSize=512 ;This can cause severe stutters or remove them. PoolMin optimal around 128, so in case try 64 or 32 or 256. For PoolSize 512 or 1024 (well, the bigger - the better, but VRAM is limited).

r.Streaming.AmortizeCPUToGPUCopy=1 ;Texture streaming settings
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1
r.Streaming.ScaleTexturesByGlobalMyBias=1
r.Streaming.Boost=0.01
r.Streaming.MaxEffectiveScreenSize=1
r.Streaming.MipBias=1000
r.Streaming.FramesForFullUpdate=60

r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0 ;Settings to turn off every visual improvement.
r.BloomQuality=0
r.ShadowQuality=0
r.RefractionQuality=0
r.MaterialQualityLevel=0
r.PostProcessAAQuality=0
r.AmbientOcclusionMaxQuality=0
r.AmbientOcclusionLevels=0
r.AmbientOcclusionRadiusScale=0.5
r.HZBOcclusion=0
r.MotionBlurQuality=0
r.FastBlurThreshold=0
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=0
r.MotionBlur.Max=0
r.BlurGBuffer=0
r.ViewDistanceQuality=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.AOQuality=0
r.DistanceFieldAO=0
r.DistanceFieldGI=0
r.DFShadowQuality=0
r.DiscardUnusedQuality=1
r.HFShadowQuality=0
r.HighQualityLightMaps=0
r.LightCulling.Quality=0
r.ParticleLightQuality=0
r.SSGI.Quality=0
r.SSR.Quality=0
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0
r.MaxAnisotropy=0
r.DetailMode=0
r.MSAA.CompositingSampleCount=0
r.SSR=0
r.SceneColorFormat=3
r.Filter.SizeScale=0
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=1
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=8
r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.6
r.Shadow.DistanceScale=0.01
r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=0

foliage.CullAll=1 ; No Trees
foliage.LODDistanceScale=3 ;Settings for quality of textures and models. You can set "foliage.LODDistanceScale=-1" to turn 3D trees into 2D, but this will cause some visual bugs on Mars Memorial.
foliage.DensityScale=0
foliage.MinimumScreenSize=0
grass.DensityScale=0

; r.ForceDebugViewModes=2 ;Not workings, sadly you can not play in Unlit Mode
r.AllowDepthBoundsTest=0 ;E1
r.AllowGlobalClipPlane=0 ;E2
r.AllowOcclusionQueries=0; E3
r.AllowPointLightCubemapShadows=0; E4
r.AllowPrecomputedVisibility=0 ;E5
r.AllowSubPrimitiveQueries=0 ;E6
r.AllowTexture2DArrayCreation=0 ;E7
r.ViewMode.ShaderTimeSlice=-1.0 ;MORE EXPERIMENTAL
r.CustomDepth=0
r.DisableDistortion=1
r.DistanceFields=0
r.DrawRectangleOptimization=1
r.IrisNormal=0
r.LimitRenderingFeatures=1
r.RenderTimeFrozen=1
r.SSS.Quality=0
r.SSS.Scale=0
r.SubsurfaceScattering=0
r.Water.Enabled=0
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=1
r.SeparateTranslucency=0

fx.MaxNiagaraCPUParticlesPerEmitter=0 ;Particles. Usually values around 400 should be enough to display everything correctly. But in Redout 2 they are purely cosmetic.
fx.MaxNiagaraGPUParticlesSpawnPerFrame=0
FX.MaxCPUParticlesPerEmitter=0
FX.MaxGPUParticlesSpawnedPerFrame=0

r.VolumetricFog=0 ;This block does not affect performance almost at all and slightly reduce image quality
r.Fog=0
r.Atmosphere=0
r.LensFlareQuality=0
; r.SkyLightingQuality=0 ; GIVES GREAT LOOK COMBINED WITH NO TEXTURES, almost no performance impact

r.ContactShadows=0 ;This block of setting particularly improve performance and worsen image (you can delete it to restore some nice lightning if performance is not so important).
r.ReflectionEnvironment=0
r.SimpleDynamicLighting=0
r.AllowStaticLighting=0
r.LightShaftNumSamples=0
r.AllowLandscapeShadows=0
r.VolumetricCloud=0 ;REMOVES CLOUDS ON CLOUD OCEAN

r.ViewDistanceScale=0.5
r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=10000

; ---------------- 3 Important blocks down ----------------
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=6 ;Affects models quality, this is adequately low models
; r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=10000 ;lowest LODs, huge performance improvement

r.MipMapLodBias=0 ;Notorious potatifier, value 10000 demolishes any texture quality, game looks 100 worse, almost no effect on performance.
; r.MipMapLodBias=10000 ;NO TEXTURES MODE !!! On Origin you will have problems with both no textures and lowest models

r.Upscale.Quality=0 ;Upscale mode, remove this to make image look more soapy, instead of pixel art style.
; r.ScreenPercentage=33.3333333 ;Overwritten by setting in "GameUserSettings.ini", but can be changed via Console.

[/script/aimodule.aisystem]
bEnableDebuggerPlugin=False

[WindowsApplication.Accessibility]
StickyKeysHotkey=False
ToggleKeysHotkey=False
FilterKeysHotkey=False
StickyKeysConfirmation=True
ToggleKeysConfirmation=True
FilterKeysConfirmation=True

I made some comments of what each block does so it will be easier to navigate. There is particularly important last 3 blocks in [SystemSetting], but it is not necessary to touch anything.

4.1 New Engine.ini config (Extreme visual reduction with r.ForwardShading)

Now this is truly graphics devastating measures

[Core.Log]
LogPluginManager=all off
LogOnlineIdentity=all off
LogOnlineSession=all off
LogMemory=all off
LogPakFile=all off
LogTemp=all off
LogLinker=all off
LogOnline=all off
LogOnlineGame=all off
LogAnalytics=all off
LogConfig=all off
LogInteractiveProcess=all off
LogInput=all off
LogOnlineEntitlement=all off
LogOnlineEvents=all off
LogOnlineFriend=all off
LogOnlinePresence=all off
LogOnlineTitleFile=all off
LogOnlineUser=all off
Global=off

[SystemSettings]
r.FinishCurrentFrame=0;<========== Engine Optimization Block
r.OneFrameThreadLag=0
r.CreateShadersOnLoad=1 ;Core engine settings
r.GPUCrashDebugging=0 ;This can be set to 1, but it will increase latency.
r.CompileShadersForDevelopment=0
r.Shaders.Optimize=1
r.Shaders.FastMath=1
r.EarlyZPass=0
r.GTSyncType=2
PerfIndexValues_ResolutionQuality=0
r.VirtualTexture=1
r.VirtualTextureReducedMemory=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdates=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesDuringGamethreadUpdates=1
r.SupportDepthOnlyIndexBuffers=1
r.SupportReversedIndexBuffers=1;==========>

r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1;<========== Streaming Block
r.RenderTargetPoolMin=8 ;Streaming pool sizes, this settings will work for R2, but they are too specific for each game and hardware.
r.Streaming.PoolSize=256 ;This can cause severe stutters or remove them. PoolMin optimal around 128, so in case try 64 or 32 or 256. For PoolSize 512 or 1024 (well, the bigger - the better, but VRAM is limited).
r.Streaming.AmortizeCPUToGPUCopy=1
r.Streaming.ScaleTexturesByGlobalMyBias=1
r.Streaming.Boost=0.05
r.Streaming.MaxEffectiveScreenSize=1
r.Streaming.MipBias=20
r.Streaming.MaxTempMemoryAllowed=8
r.Streaming.UseMaterialData=0
r.Streaming.UseNewMetrics=0
r.Streaming.UsePerTextureBias=0
r.Streaming.UseBackgroundThreadPool=1
r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=0
r.MeshStreaming=0 ;Two Main Triggers, better Keep then in these states
r.TextureStreaming=1
r.Streaming.AllowFastForceResident=1
r.Streaming.MaxNumTexturesToStreamPerFrame=1
r.Streaming.FramesForFullUpdate=6;==========>

r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0;<========== Features Block
r.BloomQuality=0 ;Settings to turn off every visual improvement.
r.ShadowQuality=0
r.DFShadowQuality=0
r.HFShadowQuality=0
r.Shadow.CSM.MaxCascades=1
r.Shadow.MaxResolution=8
r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.6
r.Shadow.DistanceScale=0.01
r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=0
r.RefractionQuality=0
r.MaterialQualityLevel=0
r.PostProcessAAQuality=0
r.AmbientOcclusionMaxQuality=0
r.AmbientOcclusionLevels=0
r.AmbientOcclusionRadiusScale=0.5
r.HZBOcclusion=0
r.MotionBlurQuality=0
r.FastBlurThreshold=0
r.TranslucencyVolumeBlur=0
r.MotionBlur.Max=0
r.BlurGBuffer=0
r.ViewDistanceQuality=0
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0
r.AOQuality=0
r.DistanceFieldAO=0
r.DistanceFieldGI=0
r.DiscardUnusedQuality=1
r.HighQualityLightMaps=0
r.LightCulling.Quality=0
r.ParticleLightQuality=0
r.SSGI.Quality=0
r.SSR.Quality=0
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0
r.MaxAnisotropy=0
r.DetailMode=0
r.MSAA.CompositingSampleCount=0
r.SSR=0
r.SceneColorFormat=3
r.Filter.SizeScale=0;==========>

foliage.CullAll=1 ; No Trees
foliage.LODDistanceScale=3 ;Settings for quality of textures and models. You can set "foliage.LODDistanceScale=-1" to turn 3D trees into 2D, but this will cause some visual bugs on Mars Memorial.
foliage.DensityScale=0
foliage.MinimumScreenSize=0
grass.DensityScale=0

r.AllowDepthBoundsTest=0 ;<========== Experimental Block
r.AllowGlobalClipPlane=0
r.AllowOcclusionQueries=0
r.AllowPointLightCubemapShadows=0
r.AllowPrecomputedVisibility=0
r.AllowSubPrimitiveQueries=0
r.AllowTexture2DArrayCreation=0
r.ViewMode.ShaderTimeSlice=-1.0
r.CustomDepth=0
r.DisableDistortion=1
r.DistanceFields=0
r.DrawRectangleOptimization=1
r.IrisNormal=0
r.LimitRenderingFeatures=10000
r.RenderTimeFrozen=1
r.SSS.Quality=0
r.SSS.Scale=0
r.SubsurfaceScattering=0
r.Water.Enabled=0
r.SeparateTranslucency=0
r.PostProcessing.PreferCompute=0
r.PostProcessAllowStencilTest=0;==========>

fx.MaxNiagaraCPUParticlesPerEmitter=0;<========== Particles Block
fx.MaxNiagaraGPUParticlesSpawnPerFrame=0 ;Particles. Usually values around 400 should be enough to display everything correctly. But in Redout 2 they are purely cosmetic.
FX.MaxCPUParticlesPerEmitter=0
FX.MaxGPUParticlesSpawnedPerFrame=0;==========>

r.ViewDistanceScale=0.35;<========== Models & Textures Block
r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=8 ;lowest LODs, huge performance improvement
r.MipMapLodBias=0 ;Notorious potatifier, value 10000 demolishes any texture quality, game looks 100 worse, almost no effect on performance.
r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=10000;==========>

r.Fog=0;<========== Small Visual Reduction Block
r.VolumetricFog=0
r.VolumetricCloud=0 ;REMOVES ANY CLOUDS AND FOG
r.Atmosphere=0
r.LensFlareQuality=0;==========>

r.ContactShadows=0;<========== Significant Visual Reduction Block
r.ReflectionEnvironment=0 ;This block of setting particularly improve performance and worsen image (you can delete it to restore some nice lightning if performance is not so important).
r.SimpleDynamicLighting=0
r.AllowStaticLighting=0
r.LightShaftNumSamples=0
r.AllowLandscapeShadows=0
r.SkyLightingQuality=1
r.PostProcessing.DisableMaterials=1
r.AllowSimpleLights=0;==========>

r.Upscale.Quality=0 ;Upscale mode, remove this to make image look more soapy, instead of pixel art style.

r.ForwardShading=1;<========== FORWARD SHADING BLOCK / No Lighting System
r.SupportSimpleForwardShading=0 ;Ehhhh, not working
r.SimpleForwardShading=1
r.ShaderComplexity.CacheShaders=1
r.Forward.LightGridPixelSize=1024
r.Forward.LightGridSizeZ=2
r.Forward.LightLinkedListCulling=1
r.ShaderComplexity.Baseline.Forward.PS=1
r.ShaderComplexity.Baseline.Forward.UnlitPS=1
r.ShaderComplexity.Baseline.Forward.VS=1
r.DBuffer=0
r.Decal.FadeDurationScale=0;==========>


r.TonemapperGamma=3.2; Adjust gamma from 2.0 to above, to increase image brightness, without affecting interface.

5. Additional tips

You can also close every single app, kill Explorer process and run Steam in light mode[www.howtogeek.com] to reduce memory and CPU usage, but it is not guaranteed to improve performance.

6. Console Unlock

For other games anti-cheats maybe won't like that.
You can use UUU[framedsc.com] to set variables from "Engine.ini" during the game, so with so monitoring like MSI Afterburner / RTSS you can check performance impact.
For example, type

r.ScreenPercentage

to see the any variable[digilander.libero.it] value, or

r.ScreenPercentage 20

to set value.

Additional Configurations

Control in-game effects that can distract you.
Remove non necessary geometry and objects, or make everything super detailed for screenshots.

[SystemSettings]
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0          ; Off Depth of Field
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0 ; Off Grain
r.MotionBlurQuality=0            ; Off Motion Blur
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0      ; Off Chromatic Aberration
r.LightShaftNumSamples=0         ; Off Light Shafts
r.LensFlareQuality=0             ; Off Lens Flares

fx.MaxNiagaraCPUParticlesPerEmitter=0    ; TURN OFF PARTICLES
fx.MaxNiagaraGPUParticlesSpawnPerFrame=0
FX.MaxCPUParticlesPerEmitter=0
FX.MaxGPUParticlesSpawnedPerFrame=0

foliage.LODDistanceScale=3 ; Higher tree draw distance
; foliage.CullAll=1        ; No Trees

r.MipMapLODBias=-1      ; Higher texture sharpness
; r.MipMapLODBias=10000 ; NO TEXTURES

; r.ViewDistanceScale=1000000000           ; Infinite draw distance (Useful for photo mode)
; r.ViewDistanceScale=1.5                  ; Higher draw distance
; r.ViewDistanceScale=0.5                  ; Enough view distance
; r.ViewDistanceScale=0.3                  ; Super low view distance

; r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.000000001 ; Highest model quality for every object (Useful for photo mode)
; r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.7         ; Better model quality at distance
; r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=4           ; Low and reasonable models
; r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=10000       ; Lowest models

; r.VolumetricCloud=0 ; REMOVES CLOUDS ON CLOUD OCEAN

Everything that should optimize work of engine w/o affecting graphics. Possibly reduces input lag.

[SystemSettings]
r.FinishCurrentFrame=0 ;Core engine settings
r.OneFrameThreadLag=0
r.CreateShadersOnLoad=1
r.GPUCrashDebugging=0
r.CompileShadersForDevelopment=0
r.Shaders.Optimize=1
r.Shaders.FastMath=1
r.EarlyZPass=0
r.VirtualTexture=1
r.VirtualTextureReducedMemory=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdates=1
AllowAsyncRenderThreadUpdatesDuringGamethreadUpdates=1
r.SupportDepthOnlyIndexBuffers=1
r.SupportReversedIndexBuffers=1

r.Streaming.AmortizeCPUToGPUCopy=1 ;Texture streaming settings
r.Streaming.LimitPoolSizeToVRAM=1
r.Streaming.FramesForFullUpdate=60

[AkaraVortex]

Also if something does not work, you can message me.
And for Unreal Engine 5 it works too, however in all games I've tested, Forward Shading block crashes the game, but even without it you can get nice boost to performance (so just use standard config).

[AkaraVortex]

Oh, forgot to add "r.TonemapperGamma=3.2" to new config... that is a little late comment.
But it will be useful in any game, if it lacks gamma slider (which Redout has), and it only affects 3D graphics and not the interface.

[Warriot]

Thanks, finished Redout 1 with any lag on medium setting, so when i launch this one with lowest grahics, was still unplayable, because of all vegetation is each track (Vortex tutorial track was working well because no vegetation), do the step 3 and 4 (not the 4.1), and now work well with better resolution and alsomt no freeze, thanks again :)

Need to try that on others games ...